Look Out! Fancy Southern: Coconut pie

Product name: Look Out! Fancy Southern: Coconut pie
Purchase details: £1.50 for an 85g pie (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 360 per pie
Country of origin: USA 

Following on from my review of Look Out! Fancy Southern: Pecan pie a couple of days ago, now it’s the turn of the Coconut pie which was also recommended to be via A Quarter of Sweets' Twitter page. I had been less excited about this variety since, as much as I love coconut, I don’t think I’ve ever actually had coconut pie, whereas pecan pie is a firm favourite of mine. Add to that the slight disappointment over the Look Out! Pecan pie, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from this product.

This Coconut pie came presented in the same style of packaging as the Pecan pie and it was only after I opened it that I realised I didn’t actually know what a coconut pie is meant to be like! Whilst the wrapper gave an ingredients list, there was no product description, so whether or not it achieved its aim, I won’t be able to say!

The pastry case was visually the same again and it was still salty with a hint of nut. This time, though, it was filled with a pale yellow substance that looked moist and slightly custard-like. The top of the pie was sticky and, whist still caramelised, was paler than the Pecan pie, and it also didn’t contain any visible pieces within the mixture. The pie felt stiff and dense to cut through and my general impression was that it looked a bit like an egg custard. This worried me slightly as, when I tried one of these as a child, I didn’t like it, although I realise my tastes have probably changed by now! I had been expecting a coconut aroma from this product but I couldn’t detect this at all – it literally just smelt of a tart.

Once again, I tried half of this pie cold first. The filling was smooth and squidgy, rather than runny, and I was pleased to discover that it contained pieces of desiccated coconut. The coconut flavour wasn’t immediately obvious but it was evident after a couple of chews. I remained unsure about exactly what the surrounding yellow substance was but I did find it wasn’t as sweet as I thought it would be. It did remind me slightly of condensed milk but, alas, this was not listed an ingredient.

I microwaved the second half of the pie for 10 seconds and found that this made the filling look a bit moister and also caused it to sink slightly. The pastry, again, became softer and more flexible, and the upper crusty layer also felt softer and less sticky. This time, I was pleased that there was a smell of coconut, and the texture became beautifully soft and creamy with a hint of caramel in the generally stronger flavour. The filling just seemed to melt in the mouth whilst maintaining its texture from the pieces of coconut.

Once more, this Look Out! Fancy Southern pie was far nicer warm than cold, and so my scores are based on that. If you’d told me prior to trying these pies that I would prefer the coconut one, I probably wouldn’t have believed you, but this was most definitely yummy! 

Appearance: 7/10
Aroma: 7/10
Taste: 7.5/10
Texture: 8/10
Overall score: 7.38/10

Look Out! Fancy Southern: Pecan pie

Product name: Look Out! Fancy Southern: Pecan pie
Purchase details: £1.50 for an 85g pie (A Quarter of Sweets)
Calories: 380 per pie
Country of origin: USA

A few weeks ago, the lovely people at A Quarter of Sweets suggested to me via Twitter  that I tried two of their newer products – Look Out!: Fancy Southern pies which are made by the same company as the Moon Pie but are very different concepts.

My first review is for the Pecan pie which I had high hopes for as pecan pie is a dessert I love, and these Look Out! products even boasted the phrase ‘just like homemade’. I was slightly sceptical, though, as the pie came presented in one of those unfortunate transparent wrappers that give absolutely nothing away by putting a picture over the bit you really want to see. In this case, the pie’s filling was obstructed by the product’s logo so only the outer pastry and foil tin were visible through the flimsy plastic. This was a shame as it did make me doubt the product’s quality.

On removing the pie from its wrapper, I was slightly concerned by the lack of whole pecans on its surface, and the topping, generally, wasn’t the most appealing I’d ever seen. However, I could see, when cutting the pie in two, that there were, at least, chopped up pecans within the caramelised upper layer. I also noticed just how thick the curved pastry case was and, having mentioned in my first ever review of Mr Kipling Dessert Classics: Mississippi mud pies, that the pastry is usually my least favourite part of these products, I wasn’t sure if this was a good thing. However, I was pleased to see that this Pecan pie had a very deep filling which almost made the quantity of pastry seem irrelevant. That said, I did intend to eat the pastry edge first so I could save the best bit until last!

To get a true picture of what this Pecan pie delivered, I decided to eat half of it cold and half of it warm.

When cold, the inner caramel layer looked beautifully smooth and squidgy. The pastry was the main aroma on offer, although there was also a hint of caramel. However, I couldn’t sense the nuts at all. Taste-wise, the pastry was salty and buttery rather than sweet, and it also had a very crumbly texture, whilst the fudgy caramel was mildly sweet but not that flavoursome. Unfortunately, my experience here wasn’t at all exciting  since the flavours just weren’t rich enough and, whilst the nuts were present, they were too small to impact the texture and they hardly added anything to the taste. 

At this stage, I was wondering why A Quarter of Sweets had recommended this product to me! Nevertheless, I persevered, and heated the other half of the pie in the microwave for 10 seconds. On opening the microwave door, I could hear the filling bubbling slightly and I noticed that it looked slightly more moist and emitted a slightly (but not majorly) stronger caramel smell. As for the pastry, this was softer and much more flexible which meant it pulled away easily from the centre of the pie. Probably due to its warmth, I thought it tasted a bit like a Kellogg’s Pop Tart, but with a nutty element. I actually can’t believe what a difference 10 seconds made to the filling of this pie – it tasted MUCH better. It was hot and gooey with a brown sugar flavour and, this time, the upper crusty layer did provide an obvious nuttiness. Even better was the fact that the nuts were more noticeably crunchy due to the contrast with the generally softer centre.

In conclusion, then, this Pecan pie was pretty nice when enjoyed warm, but I wouldn’t really recommend it in its cold form. For that reason, I’ve scored it based entirely on its warm credentials. I don’t know what the average American would think of it, but I also can’t say it was on the same level as the pecan pies that my family members bake, so the ‘just like homemade’ claim didn’t ring true for me. Was it worth the calories? I’m not sure that it was, but I’m certainly glad I gave it a try. 

Appearance: 7.5/10
Aroma: 6.5/10
Taste: 7/10
Texture: 7/10
Overall score: 7/10